Gold Plated Bracelet (Pforzheim?)

This bracelet caught my eye. As you can see, it has a good amount of wear to the gold plating, but I'm wondering if that might be intentional, as all the links have wear in the same area and there is no noticeable wear on the inside of the bracelet. The clasp looks on the old side. Stylistically, it reminds me of the Austro-Hungarian bracelet I was appreciating a few weeks ago, so I'm wondering if it might have a similar origin. No marks.

 

It is not Austrian in style, and not Austro-Hungarian in style or date.
I think it is a German bracelet, related to 'Trachten' jewellery. Trachten jewellery is the kind of jewellery worn with regional costumes.
Some types of Trachten jewellery are related to Austrian styles, and also find their origin in Historical Revival styles of the 19th century.

 

It is not gold filled, btw, the gold is too thin. Gold filled is when a layer of gold is bonded with base metal. It is reasonably thick and pretty durable.
This is probably what the Germans and Austrians call Amerikaner Doublé, with thin gold plating.

 

Thank you I was thinking 1900s-1920s for the age. Does that sound right to you?

 

I think slightly later. 1930s maybe.
You have to be careful with terms like goldfilled, best read up on them first.

 

Thank you. I was confused because I had read that Amerikaner was gold filled, and this looks like the other Amerikaner-labeled pieces that I've found.

 

Yes, it does look like Amerikaner. Goldfilled has a much thicker layer though. Do you read enough German to read an explanation of Amerikaner? In that case I could take a photo of a page on different types of gilding from one of my German books.

 

Please do! I'd love to read it. Thanks!

 

I just found this very good site, much easier:
http://www.beyars.com/de_tabellen-abkuerzungszeichen.html
I hope you can read it. Otherwise there is always google translate.

 

Oh, and if google translate makes a mess of it, just ask.
(and I'll make another mess of it )

 

Google Translate worked well enough. My German still has a long way to go. Thank you for the link. It was great to learn about
"DICA
GAM
MAGO
NEC
NEKA
NONE
Tre
GOME"
Since now I know to look out for those.

 

I love the way they keep refering to terms as 'Phantasiebezeichnungen'. Very dismissive, but very appropriate. Many terms started life as trade names, etc, and stuck somehow.

If I remember correctly Amerikaner Gold, Doublé, etc got its name in Austria. The Austrians were the first in Europe to use a plating technique which had been developed during the American Civil War to produce nice looking jewellery without using much gold. The Americans needed gold to fund the war, of course, hence the invention.
It was something along these lines, I'll see if I can find my notes on Amerikaner.